One of the measures pertaining to taxation announced by the Hon’ble Finance Minister as part of the several measures to boost the economy, was the withdrawal of ‘Angel Tax’ provisions for Start-ups and their investors. As part of the measures for mitigating the genuine difficulties of Start-ups, it was decided that a dedicated cell would be set up under a Member of CBDT for addressing the specific problems of Start-ups.
In order to redress grievances and address various tax related issues in the cases of Start-ups, a Start-up Cell has been constituted by CBDT
The Cell will work towards redressal of grievances and mitigate tax-related issues in case of Start-up entities with respect to administration of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
What is Fit India Movement? Envisioned by the Prime Minister, the nation-wide Fit India Movement aims to motivate every Indian to incorporate simple, easy ways of staying fit in their everyday life.
Significance: The initiative is the need of the hour and it will lead the country towards a healthy future.
National Sports Day: It is celebrated on 29 August, on the birth anniversary of hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand.
On this Day, President confers the National Sports Awards, National Adventure Awards, Arjuna Award, Khel Ratna, Dronacharya Award and Dhyanchand Award to recognise the exceptional achievements of Indian sportspersons.
Under this project, the Skills development and placement has trained 10462 boys and girls in various job skills and a total of 5494 of them are employed today.
About NERLP: It is a World Bank aided, multi-state livelihood project under the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), launched in 2012.
Implemented in 11 districts of Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. Aim: to improve rural livelihoods especially that of women, unemployed youth and the most disadvantaged, in four North Eastern States.
The project has focussed on five development strategies, namely, social empowerment, economic empowerment, partnership development, project management and livelihood & value chain developments.
What is it? The ordinance makes any violation of its provisions punishable by imprisonment of one to three years, and a fine of Rs 1-5 lakh. The draft ordinance was necessitated by the fact that an earlier order by the Centre asking the states to crack down against e-cigarettes could not stand judicial scrutiny.
However, a recent order, in which the High Court threw out a petition asking for protection from an ordinance against e-cigarettes, has emboldened the Health Ministry.
Background: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended ‘complete’ ban on Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), including e-cigarettes. The recommendation is based on currently available scientific evidence.
Why ICMR has recommended a complete ban? Addictive in nature: e-cigarettes and other such devices contained not only nicotine solution, that was highly addictive, but also harmful ingredients like flavoring agents and vaporisers. Availability of flavour variants and attractive designs are adding to allure of devices, and globally there was an increasing trend of e-cigarettes consumption among youth and adolescents.
Use of ENDS or e-cigarettes can open a gateway for new tobacco addiction among the masses as on the balance, these have a negative impact on public health.
Prolonged use of ENDS or e-cigarettes has documented adverse impact on humans which includes DNA damage, respiratory/cardiovascular/ neurological Disorders, carcinogenic/cellular/molecular/immunological Toxicity and even have adverse effects on fetal development and pregnancy.
Research has found that youths using e-cigarettes (or other such devices) are more likely to use regular cigarettes in later period. The exposure to ENDS increases the likelihood to experiment with regular products and increase intention to indulge in cigarette smoking.
What are e-cigarettes? An electronic cigarette (or e-cig) is a battery-powered vaporizer that mimics tobacco smoking. It works by heating up a nicotine liquid, called “juice.”
Nicotine juice(or e-juice) comes in various flavors and nicotine levels. e-liquid is composed of five ingredients: vegetable glycerin (a material used in all types of food and personal care products, like toothpaste) and propylene glycol (a solvent most commonly used in fog machines.) propylene glycol is the ingredient that produces thicker clouds of vapor. Proponents of e-cigs argue that the practice is healthier than traditional cigarettes because users are only inhaling water vapor and nicotine.
Why its hard to regulate them? As e-cigarettes contain nicotine and not tobacco, they do not fall within the ambit of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA), which mandates stringent health warnings on the packaging and advertisements of tobacco products.
Need for regulation: The current unregulated sale of e-cigarettes is dangerous for a country like India where the number of smokers is on the decline (WHO Global Report, 2015) as it increases the possibility of e-cigarettes becoming a gateway for smoking by inducing nicotine addiction and perpetuating smoking by making it more attractive, thereby encouraging persons to become users of tobacco as well as e-cigarettes.
WHO report on e- cigarettes and effects: As per the report, Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) (also known as e-cigarettes) emits nicotine, the addictive component of tobacco products. In addition to dependence, nicotine can have adverse effects on the development of the foetus during pregnancy and may contribute to cardiovascular disease. The WHO report further says that although nicotine itself is not a carcinogen, it may function as a “tumour promoter” and seems to be involved in the biology of malignant disease, as well as of neurodegeneration.
Foetal and adolescent nicotine exposure may have long-term consequences for brain development, potentially leading to learning and anxiety disorders. The evidence is sufficient to warn children and adolescents, pregnant women, and women of reproductive age against ENDS use and nicotine.
The award has been conferred for its Portal for Affordable Credit and Interest Subvention Access (PAiSA).
What is PaiSA portal? Launched in November 2018, it is a centralized IT platform which simplifies and streamlines release of interest subvention under the Mission.
It offers end to end online solution for processing, payment, monitoring and tracking of interest subvention claims from banks on a monthly basis. It is designed and developed by Allahabad Bank (Nodal bank).
About DAY- NULM: National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) is renamed as Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana-(DAY-NULM) and in Hindi as – Rashtriya Shahri Aajeevika Mission.
Coverage: Under the scheme urban areas extends the coverage to all the 4041 statutory cities and towns, there by covering almost the entire urban population.
Aims: To reduce poverty and vulnerability of the urban poor households by enabling them to access gainful self employment and skilled wage employment opportunities, resulting in an appreciable improvement in their livelihoods on a sustainable basis, through building strong grassroots level. To provide the shelter equipped with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner.
To address the livelihood concern of the urban street vendors by facilitating with suitable space, institutional credit, and social security and skills to the urban street vendor for accessing emerging market opportunities.
The scheme has two component one for urban India and other for rural India: The Urban component named as Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana will be implemented by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. The rural component named as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana will be implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development.
The campaign will be initiated in all target cities on 2nd October 2019 commemorating 150th Gandhi Jayanti after preparatory phase and culminate on the occasion of Human Rights Day, 10th December, 2019.
What is angikaar? Angikaar has been launched for social behaviour change, focusing on issues such as water & energy conservation, waste management, health, tree plantation, sanitation and hygiene.
Target group: It has been launched for beneficiaries of completed houses under PMAY (U), through community mobilisation and IEC activities.
Implementation: The campaign will converge with schemes and Missions of other Ministries dealing with these subjects. The convergence would especially focus on Ujjwala for gas connection and Ayushman Bharat for health insurance to the beneficiaries of PMAY (U). The campaign will include door to door activities, ward and city level events.
About PMAY- Urban: Launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA), in Mission mode envisions provision of Housing for All by 2022, when the Nation completes 75 years of its Independence.
The Mission seeks to address the housing requirement of urban poor including slum dwellers through following programme verticals: Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private developers using land as a resource.
Promotion of Affordable Housing for weaker section through credit linked subsidy. Affordable Housing in Partnership with Public & Private sectors. Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction /enhancement.
What is CAMPA? Supreme Court of India ordered for establishment of Compensatory Afforestation Fund and Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) in 2001.
In 2006, adhoc CAMPA was established for the management of Compensatory afforestation fund.
CAMPA Act: To compensate the loss of forest area and to maintain the sustainability, the Government of India came up with a well-defined Act, known as CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority). The law establishes the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of India, and a State Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of each state.
These Funds will receive payments for: (i) compensatory afforestation, (ii) net present value of forest (NPV), and (iii) other project specific payments. The National Fund will receive 10% of these funds, and the State Funds will receive the remaining 90%.
According to the Act’s provision, a company diverting forest land must provide alternative land to take up compensatory afforestation. For afforestation, the company should pay to plant new trees in the alternative land provided to the state.
Issues with CAMPA: In 2002, the Supreme Court had observed that collected funds for afforestation were under-utilised by the states and it ordered for centrally pooling of funds under ad hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund.
The law says that land selected for afforestation should preferably be contiguous to the forest being diverted so that it is easier for forest officials to manage it. But if no suitable non-forest land is found, degraded forests can be chosen for afforestation. In several states like Chattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand where the intensity of mining is very high, to find the non-forest land for afforestation to compensate the loss of forest is a big task.
Utilisation of CAMPA fund: Several state governments are not utilising it properly. An amount of Rs 86 lakh from CAMPA funds meant for afforestation was reportedly spent on litigation work in Punjab. Moreover, at several places, the loss of natural species is compensated with plantation of non-native species in the name of the artificial plantation. It serves as a threat to even the existing ecosystem.
Way ahead: The proposed objective of the Act must be fulfilled by utilising the CAMPA funds only for the purpose it is meant for. It should efficiently be used only for afforestation and wildlife conservation activities.
A closer look at the state government activities using CAMPA funding is needed. The central government should adopt the concept of outcome budgeting for allocation of funds to the state government in which funding will be done on installment basis by checking the outcome of previous funds.
State governments should restore the existing forests rather than creating new ones.
About CDRI: It will serve as a platform where knowledge is generated and exchanged on different aspects of disaster and climate resilience of infrastructure. It will create a mechanism to assist countries to upgrade their capacities and practices, with regard to infrastructure development in accordance with their risk context and economic needs.
This initiative will benefit all sections of society. Economically weaker sections of society, women and children, are the most vulnerable to the impacts of disasters and hence, will be benefitted from the improvement of knowledge and practice in creating disaster resilient infrastructure.
It will also benefit all areas with high disaster risk. In India, the north-eastern and Himalayan regions are prone to earthquakes, coastal areas to cyclones and tsunamis and central peninsular region to droughts.
Significance: A global coalition for disaster resilient infrastructure would address concerns that are common to developing and developed countries, small and large economies, countries at early and advanced stages of infrastructure development, and countries that have moderate or high disaster risk.
It is offered by the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs in collaboration with School of Planning & Architecture (SPA), New Delhi and Building Materials & Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC).
Features: It is a unique course that offers awareness and understanding about natural hazards, helps identify regions with high vulnerability with respect to various hazards (earthquakes, cyclones, landslides, floods, etc.) and specifies district-wise level of damage risks to the existing housing stock.
Cnemaspis anandani (Anandan’s day gecko) is the most recent day gecko found in the Nilgiris.
It is endemic to the Western Ghats. It is only around 42 mm in size.
It is Pakistan’s surface-to-surface ballistic missile.
It is capable of delivering multiple types of warheads up to 290 kms.
Two products from Tamil Nadu— Dindigul lock and Kandangi Saree — have been given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by The Geographical Indications Registry in Chennai.
The Dindigul locks are known throughout the world for their superior quality and durability, so much so that even the city is called Lock City.
The Kandangi sarees are manufactured in the entire Karaikudi taluk in Sivaganga district. They are characterised by large contrast borders and some are known to have borders covering as far as two-thirds of the saree which is usually around 5.10 m-5.60 m in length.
Union HRD Ministryhas launched one of world’s largest Integrated Online Junction for – School Education ‘Shagun’.
It is an over-arching initiative to improve school education system by creating a junction for all online portals and websites relating to various activities of the Department of School Education and Literacy.
The word Shagun is coined from two different words- ‘Shala’ meaning Schools and ‘Gunvatta’ meaning Quality.